Graduate Student – Faculty Mentor Workshops
The Society for Psychological Anthropology is pleased to announce its graduate student – faculty mentor workshops to be hosted at the 2013 AAA meetings in Chicago. We are excited this year to offer a combination of topical as well as professional development-oriented themes this year. These workshops are designed to be informal settings for graduate students to meet with like-minded students and leading scholars in the field. Each workshop can accommodate three students and the workshops are free and open to all SPA student members.
To apply to a workshop, email a description (250-300 words) of the ways in which your research is related to a given topic, or how your current positioning relates to a workshop that is focused on professional development. In your description also please address the general aims of your participation. You do not have to be a member of the SPA at the time of application, but we request you join the Society for Psychological Anthropology should you be selected to participate. Please feel free to forward this message to your student/university specific listservs and to any graduate student you think may be interested. Applicants to workshops facilitated by faculty from their home institutions will not be considered.
Descriptions of each workshop can be found below. Participants will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis (although fitness of match with a topic will be considered), so please submit your application as soon as possible. The student-faculty workshops at the 2012 AAA meetings filled very quickly, and I anticipate these will do the same.
Applications will be accepted beginning immediately. Any applications received after the initial 3 slots per workshop are filled will be placed on a waiting list. Please send applications, as well as any questions, to Kristi Ninnemann (kmn24@case.edu).
This year’s workshops:
1. Elizabeth Fein
Topic: Clinical Ethnography and Practice in Mental Health
Thursday November 21st @ noon
Lunch will be provided
Description: This workshop will examine the intersections between ethnographic research and clinical practice in the field of mental health and psychiatric anthropology. How do the variations in perception, cognition and emotion that are often classified under psychiatric diagnoses shape the process and product of ethnography? How do we respond to the needs and voices of patients, practitioners, and the communities that surround them when researching psychiatric phenomena? What professional pathways are available to those who aim to combine ethnographic mental health research and clinical practice?
2. Claudia Strauss (Pitzer College)
Topic: Political Selves
Thursday November 21st @ 3pm
Coffee will be provided
Description: How do people develop their political outlooks and become involved with (or feel disenfranchised from) political struggles? We will share ideas about the insights psychological anthropology can bring to these topics.
3. Eileen Anderson-Fye (Case Western Reserve University)
Topic: Employing Multiple Methods in Psychological Anthropology Research
Friday November 22nd @ 11:45am
Lunch will be provided
4. Neely Meyers (George Washington University)
Topic: Global Mental Health
Friday November 23rd @ 1pm
Lunch will be provided
Description: Dr. Myers, an expert on culture and madness, will host this workshop on global mental health. She is particularly interested in the intersections of psychiatry, public health, and anthropology. This will be an open forum for advice on future proposals and projects.
5. Ted Lowe (Soka University of America; Editor, Ethos)
Topic: Getting Your Work Through Peer Review
Saturday November 23rd @ noon
Lunch will be provided
6. Allen Tran (Bucknell University)
Topic: Transitioning to a Post-Graduate Career
Saturday November 23rd @ noon
Lunch will be provided
Description: This workshop is designed for advanced graduate students. Topics will include job/post-doc applications and interviews, course design and strategies, and the various challenges and opportunities that psychological anthropologists face in transitioning to the early stages of their careers.